And here you can see it motion. I cannot tell you how many people (some that were instructors) have told me that she's not capable of this because "she's not built for it" or "her neck is huge." Noted. But I'm not expecting Grand Prix quality movements, but I KNOW she is capable, it just took a while for me to show her she CAN. I know my girl, and I wouldn't ask her to do something I didn't genuinely feel she could do. Also, it's taken a bit because I'm learning teaching her these things as I go as well. She would have picked it up faster if I would have been a better teacher for her.

This is what happens when you are five minutes late to get dinner ready. Wes starts throwing stuff on the ground in protest. He has a routine, and that means EVERYBODY needs to stick to it.

*le sigh* it's been almost 10 privileged years of owning this mare and I still fall in love with her pretty much every time I look at her. Totally considering getting another Klein tattoo lately, surprising, I know.

Have to be supple, though she's being a bit dramatic here.

The Other Half saw Mochs' favorite salt block was on sale at TSC one evening so he made sure to grab her one. Here he is trying to show her he got her a new one. Yes, he does lick the salt block too, you know, to demonstrate for her.

This is the stare down I get every single morning I come back from the gym. If she had a watch, she'd be looking at it, tapping a hoof. BTW, big horse people, Amigo XL, best draft blanket I've found so far. Amazing cut, great fit, very durable! I've tried SS Tack's Big Fella line and some others that were supposed to be cut for drafts and they just never fit great.

I had to have another epidural spinal injection this past week. This was the second one and should get rid of the rest of the nerve pain I had. The first one took care of most of it, so they did a second one to clear up the last bit. I highly recommend this procedure! If you look at the second needle, you'll see kind of a dark v like line, that is the steroids being injected. L4 and L5 were injected. This does relate to riding since this part of the body is in heavy use while riding. My nerve pain never was irritated by riding, but since these injections I do notice I feel more centered in the saddle. This is most likely because I had begun to compensate over time and it wasn't noticeable because it was normal...until you feel the difference after they fix it!

Back to ponies...this is the camera on the iPhone 7 Plus. It's amazing.

The Handsome with his dad.

Mochs searching him for food, of course.

Sweetest boy in the world.

Klein mare #dgaf

Fun with a small grid.

Jumping in from a long spot. She was happy to get her feet off the ground that day and I had to ask her to bring it back a notch to pretty much everything that day. She didn't get the memo in time on this one.

Monday, November 14, 2016

The other weekend I took Klein back to the Pine Barrens because out of all the places we have lived together, we have never lived somewhere that had four seasons and we could see the leaves change colors. It has been especially beautiful lately and I have found myself taking a lot of random pictures of all the colors lately because this is all so different than what we are used to.

We had some perfect weather that day so we went for a long, easy ride to just enjoy the colors. Klein had also just finished her antibiotics that morning for the Anaplasmosis so I really didn't want to put any load on her system. A long, easy ride was perfect. Speaking of Anaplasmosis, the vet told me that "inclusion bodies" for Anaplasmosis were present in her blood and that they only appear in a 12-24 hour window. We just happened to be in that window when her blood was pulled. So, as he suspected due to her symptoms, the blood confirmed 100% that it was Anaplasmosis. Whew! Easy enough to treat and move on! She never did act like she was bothered by it, which still just blows my mind completely.

Looking at something only horse vision can see.

We also explored a new area that we have not been in before. There are many more miles to be explored there and I think that place will be a really good spot for some spring conditioning when the time comes.

A lot of people were out enjoying the weather on foot, dirt bikes, and kayaks. I do have to say, this spot is full of some of the most polite people I have ever come across when it comes to horse traffic. All the dirt bikers either slowed way down or stopped and turned their bikes off as soon as we came into view and I had to promise them Klein didn't care about any of that so they were ok to start their bikes and go on by. Some that passed slowly said have a safe ride, all the cars/trucks slowed down and waved or rolled the window down to say Klein was beautiful and ask what kind of horse she was. If anyone in the area reads this, thank you for being so attentive to horses and so polite about passing them.

Some of the area had more color than others, which made it interesting because it was like we were riding through completely different places. Hope you guys are out enjoying your ponies in the nice fall weather!

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

The Handsome after a warm bath. The
combination of a warm bath and some beautiful weather had him cantering
around after his bath like a colt.

Recently The Other Half surprised me yet again. We have a fully
plumbed and powered barn, the one thing it is missing is hot water. The
weather has been really nice lately and The Other Half said something
about baths for all three ponies and I said “Yeah, probably the last one
for a while.” Little did I know he contacted one of our friends to ask
about her hot water heater for her barn. She had a pretty awesome set
up with it on a cart so you can take it anywhere you need and have hot
water. He got the information on what type of heater it is and went on
Amazon. He found the perfect heater for what I would need. Here it is if anyone is interested: https://www.amazon.com/Eccotemp-L10-Portable-Outdoor-Tankless/dp/B002JLSH5S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478651941&sr=8-1&keywords=eccotemp+l10

The
next day it showed up at the house and The Other Half had all the
fittings and pieces he’d need. We looked at mounting it on the wall of
the barn by the wash rack but I can all but guarantee it would have only
been a matter of time before Wesson tried to knock it off the wall,
because that is one of his hobbies. I decided it would be better on a
dolly because then I could move it where ever I wanted and it could be
in the storage stall when not in use.

The Other Half did an
awesome, awesome job with it. It is very easy to use, all I have to do
is connect the hose from the heater to the spicket at the barn and then
turn the valve on for the propane tank. From there you adjust the heat
as needed.

The finished product!

The flame kicks on immediately, and the water is instantly
hot. I LOVE IT! The pones love it too. They like their hot baths.
Klein, the princess that gets offended any time I even think about going
near her face with a sprayer lets me spray her face with hot water.

This
is going to make my life a lot easier when spring shows roll around.
Plus, if you know the bittersweet heartache of owning a grey...hot water
is your friend when it comes to cleaning them. This will also allow me
to bathe Klein more frequently in the colder months so that she can
stay cleaner overall. Thankfully Wes and Mochs hide dirt pretty well
for the most part. I don't know what I'd do if I had three greys.

The
Other Half is also in a FB group that Horse Hubby started and is full
of other horse hubbies that either share great ideas or cry on
eachother’s shoulders because they all share the pain of being slaves to the horsebeasts. He
posted the picture of the set up so that other horse hubbies could see
it in case they wanted to put one together. Horse Hubby made it into a
meme and shared it on his page.

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Klein baby happy to be out this evening for a walk. We were checking out our ring before heading across the street.

It's a well known fact that full drafts are very stoic, yet somehow very cheap dates when it comes to drugs for veterinary procedures. Klein has always been a very tough mare and I always have the fact that full drafts are known to be stoic in the back of my head. I'm convinced that Klein would run herself into the ground before she quits something. That is something that is ALWAYS in my head when I condition her, and a big part of the reason why I monitor her fitness with a heart rate monitor, so I know exactly what is going on because if there was a problem, she might not tell me for a while.

Last Sunday I brought Klein in for a bath and noticed she was breathing a little heavy, which was weird because she wasn't doing anything other than grazing before I brought her in. It wasn't hot, there is no other reason she should have been breathing like that. I grabbed a thermometer and imagine my surprise when it read 103.8. After about five minutes her breathing was normal again and by this time I had taken her temperature three more times because I didn't believe it. She was acting 100% normal. How?

I gave her a bath and had The Other Half change the battery in the thermometer. Same temp. I stood there saying "This thermometer HAS to be broken?!" I put her back out for a while to watch her and she still acted like absolutely nothing was wrong. She was happily grazing and even took a nap IN the sun. I had The Other Half grab a different thermometer because none of this made any sense. Same reading. W...t...f...?

We gave her a granola bar and she was just as excited as always for it. We brought everyone in for dinner and Klein was nickering for hers. She ate normal. I gave her some bute and checked on her a little while later. When I went out to check on her she was munching on hay like normal and her temp was down to 101. I went back out an hour after that, same thing, munching on hay when I went to get her. This time she was down to 99. It was about 10pm by this time and I felt like she would be fine through the night.

The "excuse you, we're ready for dinner" signal.

The next morning I took her temperature, 99 degrees. I went to work and took her temperature when I came home, 98.8 degrees. She was still acting normal. Eating, drinking, bossing, etc... She even went bucking and squealing when The Other Half opened the gate that evening to let them into their other pasture.

The next morning I had a minor surgical procedure (nothing serious, just an injection) and I had to stay home for the day. The Other Half had to stay home to watch me since I was heavily sedated and had IV pain meds for the procedure. I went straight to bed when we got home to sleep off the rest of the sedation since I was completely out of it. The Other Half had the ponies where he had a full view of them all day to see if anything funny was going on. Nothing.

When I woke up I went out and took Klein's temperature, 104.9. I called the vet and he was out within an hour. While we were waiting for him we watched Klein take a big drink of water and boss Mochs off the mineral block because SHE wanted the mineral block at that same second. Her behavior completely defied any logic.

Hanging out in the pasture in the awesome hammock The Other Half bought, waiting for the vet and waking up from la la land.

The good news is, it's just Anaplasmosis (the new name for Erlichiosis, what Mochs had earlier this year). It's a minor illness from a tick bite. He gave her an IV injection of antibiotics and bute to break her fever and give the bug a drop kick. I also had him pull blood to make sure nothing else was going on. Klein was down to 99 within an hour and a half. She even had her feet done right after the vet had left and stood just fine for her pedicure. Unbelievable to me how she could just go on like she DIDN'T have a raging fever.

The vet commented about how stoic these horses are and then said "you know if she was a TB, she'd be on her death bed." Ha! But, this is really no bragging right about how stoic she is. If something is wrong, I really wish she WOULD be dramatic and let me know. Thankfully I noticed that short, five minute, heavy breathing episode or who knows how long she would have let this go before sounding the alarm for me. She is one tough mofo. She doesn't go down without swinging that's for sure. OG status re-certified.

The point of this is, know your horses. Know their behaviors, their routine, or even what a normal temperature is for them.

Klein is on five days of doxy (orally) and her temp has never went back up since it broke with the injection. I took her for a walk across the road tonight just to get her out, since clearly she doesn't feel bad. We kept it to a walk though. She doesn't like being idle, and I'm sure it makes no sense to her because she's not feeling bad. I want her to finish her round of doxy before we start any real work. I don't want to tax her system, I want that bug GONE for good.

Just a pretty pic of part of the farm this evening. The leaves are starting to get really beautiful this week.